Hindus constitute 79.8 percent of India’s population and Muslims 14.2 percent but the proportion of Hindus to total population in 2011 slipped by 0.7 percentage points, census data released on Tuesday said.

The Muslim community has registered a moderate 0.8 per cent growth to touch 17.22 crore in the 10 year period between 2001 and 2011, up from 13.8 crore, while Hindus population showed a decline by 0.7 per cent at 96.63 crore during the period, the census data said. The population of Christian stood at 2.3 percent while that of Sikh and Buddhist was 1.7 percent and 0.7 percent respectively.